Feature: how school children in and around Leamington, Warwick and Kenilworth have been taking part in competitive sporting activities despite Covid-19 pandemic

The partnership provided access to the School Games, a national government initiative working with the Youth Sport Trust and Sport England, and is part of the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire (CSW) Active Partnership.

It also provides other opportunities such as sports leadership and well-being support.

Ali Knight, the CWSSP's school games organiser, said: "Many of the schools in Central Warwickshire have worked hard to ensure their students, no matter what the circumstance have been able to continue to access physical education and really value the importance of physical activity.

"Now more than ever we need our young people to have the opportunity to be active and to take time to participate in activities to support their well-being.

"The sports partnership will continue to support schools, young people and their families and promote the real benefits of physical activity on our physical and mental well-being."

At the onset of lockdown 1 an A-Z challenge was launched with different activities each day released on social media and through schools' platforms so students could access these through school or from home.

Activities ranged from football skills and athletics to gymnastics and windsurfing.

And during the latter part of 2020, following a successful Summer Virtual School Games the Autumn Virtual Games was launched #CSWVirtualGames.

More than 6,000 pupils across the CW area from 34 schools took part in 23 events including athletics, football and dance.

They were part of an amazing 57,712 pupils who took part in intra, inter and county events across CSW.

Challenges were set with deadline for submission from schools.

The challenges could be done at home or in school so were accessible depending on individual circumstances.

The idea being that although the challenges were individual their results were put together to get team totals.

These totals were then compared to other schools across the are to get Central Warwickshire Champions - listed below

Infant Agility - St Josephs

Athletics (yr 3/4) and Competition4U Pentathlon - Priorsfield

Athletics (yr 5/6) and football (yr 3/4) - St Margarets

Football (yr 5/6) - Telford Junior

Dance KS1 - Emscote Infants

Dance KS2 - Newburgh

Football (boys yr 9/10) - Evergreen

Football (boys yr 7/8 and girls yr 9/10)- Campion

Football (girls yr 7/8) - Myton

Dance: Yr 7/8 set, 7/8 solo, 7/8 group, 9/10 group - Myton

Dance: Yr 9/10 set - King's High

Athletics - All year groups and KS3 Competition4U Pentathlon - Myton

"The staff and children have loved all the challenges," said Anne Bagworth of St Nicholas Primary School from which pupils recorded videos of their efforts.

Rachel Cole, head of PE at Myton School, added: "The Virtual School Games competitions have been fully embraced by the students at Myton School.

"The great range of competitions has allowed our students the opportunities to stay active, to compete and develop key values through sport. It has enabled them to challenge themselves and have fun during these difficult times."

These schools then went on to a county final where they either had an additional challenge or were matched against the other seven areas of CSW.

Brookhurst Primary School has also been awarded with nine School Games Leadership Awards for students who have helped to run, officiate, and organise the events.

This award is available to pupils in years 1, 2 5 and 6 across the area.

Sarah Cleaver, assistant School Games organiser, for the CWSSP, said: "With the opportunity for competitive sport being so limited by Covid restrictions both in and out of school we looked for a way of keeping this going during challenging times.

"The introduction of virtual events has allowed young people to keep competition alive both testing themselves with personal challenges and being involved in team efforts.

"So many more pupils have had the chance to be involved rather than just the young people who usually represent their school.

"By having these opportunities, we hope that we are contributing to the government's directive of 60 minutes active.

"The number of participants is amazing, and feedback has been very rewarding."